If you’re searching for that last-minute holiday party drink idea, you might try this one. Holiday Cranberry Margaritas!

Cranberry Margarita

It’s a very easy recipe with a little bit of preparation.

Cranberry Margarita recipe:

1 1/2 oz tequila

1/2 oz Grand Marnier

3-4 oz. cranberry puree

Shake in cocktail shaker with ice and strain into cocktail glass

Garnish with candied cranberries

For the cranberry puree, just take a cup of orange juice and a cup of sugar…simmer over medium heat to dissolve sugar. Add 1 package of fresh cranberries and heat for about 10 minutes. Let cool and then use a blender to puree cranberry mixture. Strain through a mesh strainer to remove larger cranberry pieces.

For the cranberry garnish, take a package of fresh cranberries, skewer a handful of cranberries with a wooden skewer. Then, roll cranberry stick in light Karo Syrup and then sugar. Then place them in freezer to firm up.

Okay, so I’ve recently discovered a new guilty pleasure. As I was finishing up my Tipsy Tech exam in Austin on Wednesday night, December 6th, Discovery Channel was premiering a new show.

Moonshine is described by dictionary.com as: a smuggled or illicitly distilled liquor, especially corn liquor illicitly distilled chiefly in rural areas of the southern U.S.

I stumbled upon this show just this week as I was searching for something to watch on television one evening. Tired of surfing, I stopped on the Discovery Channel and decided to watch the uplifting documentary “2012 Apocalypse”. During one of the commercial breaks I was treated to this promo:

Anyone interested in how spirits were once (and apparently still are) made, might want to check out this show. It’s kind of a cross between a Do It Yourself show and COPS. Any show featuring characters with names like Tickle and Popcorn deserves at least a look.

As funny as I think some of the characters are, it’s important to mention that just today a story came out of India reporting on the very serious and dangerous side of moonshine.

Moonshiners on Discovery Channel is now in its second week, with three episodes already having aired. You can watch full episodes of Moonshiners here.